Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Using our wealth wisely

Jesus, in this story, appears to commend someone who acts dishonestly. But in fact he doesn't commend the manager for his dishonesty - he commends him for his shrewdness and wisdom.

1. Here was a person who looked to the future.
He was about to be jobless, homeless and penniless. He would be completely dependent on others. So he uses his master's money to make friends for himself. As St Augustine wrote, 'He perpetrates a fraud to secure his future'.
Jesus says, 'If only the Sons and Daughters of Righteousness were like that - not being dishonest, but thinking ahead, in planning for the future.
Not just for the here and now.
So many people, and Christians are no different, live as if the here and now is all that matters. We get educated, meet someone, settle down, earn some money, have children, buy a home, earn some more money, buy a bigger home, go on holiday, have grandchildren, retire, have a few more holidays, downsize, and then fall off our perch. Is that what life is really all about? And Jesus tells us to be like this manager: to be wise. To plan for the future, for the time when we are thrown off the estate. To plan for our death and what comes after, to plan for the there and then.

2. Here was a person who used worldly wealth to make friends for himself.
And Jesus urges us to do the same! It is a very odd instruction.
But the friends we are to make are the friends who will welcome us into heaven. The idea is similar to Jesus' teaching to us to 'store up treasure in heaven'.
And we do that through deep generosity: the old word was 'almsgiving'. Giving to those in need
And we also do that through giving to the work of mission, to the work of the Christian ministry, of making Jesus known. Because when a person becomes a Christian they become our friend for eternity.

There is something that the earlier bible teachers pick up on in this story.
All that we have, our wealth, belongs to another. We are the dishonest manager. We have cheated God of what we owe him and when, in his judgement, he declares he will turn us out (are there echoes of the story of Adam and Eve here?), we have a choice. To be foolish and to do nothing, or to be wise and to use his resources in order to prepare us for that future time.

It is so sad, indeed it is foolish, when believers have accumulated wealth that is doing nothing. Chrysostom writes (and this is as much a challenge to me), 'What excuse will we have if we heedlessly lock our money behind doors and barricades and leave it lying idle? Instead we should make it available to the needy now, so that in the future we may count on support from them'.
Our wealth could be doing so much for the Kingdom of God, rather than just accumulating in some portfolio or property. Think of what Jesus did when he was given a few loaves and fishes. It could be helping those in need. It could be winning friends for us for eternity.

Be like the dishonest manager! Be wise!

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Advent carol service Leader The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;Choir Those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shoneChoir O nata lux de lumine – Tallis (O light, born of light)

Leader In this service, we join with brothers and sisters around the world, and light candles to mark the signs that God has given to his people as we journey through Advent. FIRST CANDLE: Abraham and Sarah, to whom the promise was first given. We light our first candle to recall the men and women of faith in the Old Testament, to whom the promise would be given. 4000 years before the birth of Christ, God told Abraham and Sarah that one of their descendants would destroy sin and death, rule the world and bless all nations.

(A person lights the First Candle)

Leader Let us prayAll God of Abraham and Sarah and all the Patriarchs of old, we thank you for the promise that you have given us. Help us, like A…

Acts 2:37-47 Peter, in Acts 2:40, urges the people who listen to him: ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation’ How could he say that? How can you call any generation corrupt? It is very simple. Peter is speaking to a generation which has crucified the Son of God. Some people here may be landlords. I don’t know whether you ever have any problems getting rent. If you do, God knows what it is like! Jesus tells a story about a vineyard. The owner gave it to some people. He said to them, ‘Look after it for me. Care for it, enjoy it. All I ask is that you remember that it belongs to me, that it is my gift to you, and give me what is mine when I send my messengers to you for the rent. The owner goes away. Some time later he sends a messenger. The tenants beat up the messenger and send him away with nothing. The owner sends another messenger. The tenants do the same thing to him. Finally the owner says, ‘I will send my own son. He will come with my full authority. They will respect him’. Bu…

Children are a gift from God. And as always with God’s gifts to us, they are completely and totally undeserved. And you have been given the astonishing gift of Benjamin, and the immense privilege and joy of loving him for God, and of bringing him up for God. And of course our greatest desire for our children is to see them grow, be happy, be secure, flourish and to be fulfilled, to bring blessing to others, to be part of the family of God and to love God. And in baptism you are placing Benjamin full square in the family of God. I know that those of us here differ in our views about infant baptism. The belief and the practice of the Church of England is in line with that of the historic church, but also – at the time of the Reformation – of Calvin and the other so-called ‘magisterial reformers’ (which is also the stance taken in the Westminster confession). They affirmed, on the basis of their covenantal theology (which sees baptism as a new covenant version of circumcision), of Mark 10:1…